This invention relates to television newsgroup systems, and more particularly, to techniques for providing and supporting newsgroup message forums in a television environment that may include an interactive television program guide.
A popular aspect of the Internet relates to Usenet message forums. A user of such a service may join a Usenet group to discuss a variety of topics. A Usenet server acts as an intermediary between the participants of a Usenet forum. Users post messages to a particular Usenet forum by typing in the message from their computer and transmitting the message to a Usenet server which makes the message available to the public. To read a Usenet message, a user logs onto the Usenet server, accesses the particular forum in which the message resides, and then opens the message. The user may then respond by posting another message to the Usenet server.
Usenet forums are referenced using associative parameters. For example, to read or post messages in the Seinfeld Usenet forum, a user might access the Usenet forum alt.tv.seinfeld. For a more general discussion of television sitcoms, the user might access the Usenet forum alt.tv.sitcom.
One of the problems with accessing a desired Usenet forum is that the name of a particular forum may not be easy to guess. Users may therefore search for desired forums. For example, a user who wishes to post a question about a particular opera he or she has recently seen might search for an appropriate Usenet forum using the keyword “opera.” One search result may be rec.music.opera. Users may also search for desired forums by browsing through directories of forums.
Every time the user wishes to post or read about a message about a different topic, a search may be required. Moreover, Usenet forums are added and deleted on a regular basis. A user might use one Usenet forum to discuss a particular topic on one day, only to find on the next day that a new and narrower Usenet forum has been created that better suits the discussion.
Traditionally, Usenet forums have been used by the more savvy computer user. UNIX used to be a popular platform on which to run software such as “tin,” which is a popular Usenet forum reader, allowing the user to search for Usenet forums, access Usenet forums, and read and post messages in the Usenet forums. With the Internet and computer technology becoming more mainstream, non-technical users are becoming increasingly active in the Usenet forum discussions. Services such as Dejanews provide a relatively user-friendly, web-based platform for accessing, posting, and reading the messages in most of the tens of thousands of Usenet forums currently available.
One of the benefits Usenet forums provide is the ability to post and retrieve files. Although the entire system of messaging is text-based, various methods of encoding digital data into text exist. Likewise, various methods of decoding text into digital data exist. UUencode and UUdecode are examples of such utilities, respectively.
Originally, Usenet forums were used for technical and academic discussions. Today's Usenet forums address a cross-section of everyday issues, including lifestyle, fashion, news, business, etc. Television programs are often discussed in Usenet forums as well. However, there is generally no way in which a user of a traditional Usenet forum service may easily view a television program while participating in a Usenet discussion about that program. A user might locate a television in the same room as the user's personal computer, but such an arrangement would be awkward to view. Moreover, many households locate their televisions in the living room, but are reluctant to locate their computers in the living room.
Although personal computers may be provided with tuner cards that allow television signals to be displayed on the computer monitor, many television viewers would prefer to view television on a traditional television. Televisions generally offer greater viewing areas than computer monitors, so that users need not sit nearly as close to a television screen as they would to a computer monitor. Televisions are also typically located in rooms within the home that are more suitable for watching television than where computers are typically located.
A system that attempts to integrate aspects of the Internet with the television viewing experience is available from WebTV Networks, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. The WebTV system permits television viewers to access the Internet through a WebTV Plus Receiver connected to their television sets. The WebTV Plus Receiver enables users to surf the World Wide Web on their television by connecting their televisions to the web-based WebTV Network through a standard phone line. The WebTV System permits users to view television program listings and web sites related to television programs that appear in the program listings.
The WebTV system also provides TV Crossover Links that allow users to access web sites that are related to television programs. The WebTV Plus Receiver detects data such as web links (i.e., URLs) that is embedded in the video broadcast and notifies users with a TV Crossover Link watermark on their television screens. The TV Crossover Links permit users to link to web sites through the Internet related to the television program that the user is watching. The user can view the web site and the television program simultaneously through the WebPIP picture-in-picture function. If the web site supports Usenet features, the user might access a given Usenet forum through the Internet while watching a television program. There is nothing in the WebTV system, however, that ensures that participants in the Usenet forum are watching the same television programs as the user. The messages in the forum may therefore be considerably less focused than they would be if all the participants were actively viewing the same television program.
Interactive television program guides implemented on set-top boxes allow users to view television program listings on their televisions. Such program guides allow users to view television program listings in different display formats and to perform various other functions. For example, a user may instruct the program guide to display a channel-ordered grid of current program listings. The user may also use the program guide to search for programs in a desired programming category such as sports, movies, news, or the like. If desired, the program guide may be used to order pay-per-view programming. Interactive program guides have not, however, been capable of providing Usenet-related features.
Previously-known systems have generally not provided television viewers with opportunities to engage in Usenet forum communications with other television viewers without relying solely on the Internet. Previously-known systems also have not provided television viewers with opportunities to engage in Usenet forum communications involving exclusively other viewers of a television program or channel. Moreover, previously-known interactive television program guides have not supported Usenet forum discussion features.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a way in which an interactive television application such as an interactive television program guide may be used to assist users in accessing and interacting with newsgroups.